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It’s been three years now since I’ve had a phone upgrade, and my poor old iPhone 5 is starting to struggle a bit with some of the features of iOS9, additionally there are an ever growing number of apps that no longer support the iPhone 5, so it was time to upgrade.

Why didn’t you get the iPhone 6 I hear you ask?, Well, I decided last year to break my biyearly iPhone buying cycle and wait for the S model instead, for a number of reasons. It allows app developers to catch up with the new screen resolution, and case and screen protector manufacturers to have a years worth of cases and protectors out. Previously, I’ve had to buy some cheap case and protector, hope it fits ok, and then replace it with a better one later. I’m still mentally scared from dropping my iPhone 5 on the first day, without a case or screen protector, as I was waiting for them to arrive it the post.

So three years on, and there’s a reasonable amount that has changed. Obviously the screen resolution gives you more real estate, the phone size and button placements also (the on/off button on the side it taking a little getting used to). The camera is a vast improvement over the 5, sporting a 12 megapixel camera, that not only now gives me the option of 4K video, but also slow motion and the auto HDR functionality. In addition, I now get to play with the true tone flash, which if I remember correctly has 2 different coloured flashes and uses the best mixture based on the current lighting. I’ve yet to take any pictures of peoples faces, but will report back when I have. I now have the option of the Live Photo which feels a little bit of a gimmick if I’m honest. This is the option to automatically record a couple of seconds of video either side of a photo being taken to help you remember that moment. However realistically, the few seconds before and after are usually people looking in the wrong direction, or somebody walking across the shot.

I now have the option of using the finger print reader that was introduced in the iPhone 5s, which seems a really simple way of unlocking your phone, and making purchases. It seems I can now even make purchases on the Amazon app with my thumb print…(dangerous for drunken purchases!)

Due to the addition of the NFC chip, I am now able to use Apple Pay, allowing me to play for things with my phone. To be honest, there are very few shops that I use that support contactless payment, so not sure how much use it’s going to get, however it’s a fun feature to have.

With the dedicated motion chip, I can now use the phone as a pedometer feeding straight into the Apple health app, however as I currently use my Fitbit flex, I can’t really see me using this function too much.

I guess the most interesting feature of this phone is the 3D touch. Using a pressure sensitive screen you are able to lightly press to get a peek at an item, say a picture, an email attachment, a url, and then a slightly harder press to pop into the item itself. In addition, doing the same on an app can bring up a short cut menu. This is taking a little getting used to, as it’s sometime hard to gauge the light press. I have however noticed that this only work on a few apps other than Apples own. For example, lightly pressing on the Twitter app, will give the the option of Search, New Tweet, New Message. As my apps seem to be updating on a daily basis, I’m it won’t be long before the majority of the apps support this feature.

Finally, and probably the most noticeable change for me is the battery life. My poor iPhone 5 was getting to the point of having to be charged at least twice a day (due to streaming music, podcasts and video), however this is getting me through the day and still having at least 40% charge under the same load.

All in all, very happy with the purchase, and plan to continue with the S model cycle, I’m yet to go out and play with the camera, as I’ve been suffering with manflu since I got the phone, however will update the post later with some images and 4K video.